This experiment examined what happens when the VR player is placed in a hectic, dynamic environment. In our case, this meant a space lander tumbling through the atmosphere upon reentry. As one might expect, all this motion got quite disorienting, but, perhaps surprisingly, not to the point where we couldn’t keep our feet or follow where things were. In fact, the head tracking capabilities of VR actually made it a bit easier to follow objects as they were flying through this environment, since the player can shift focus by simply turning their head rather than having to manipulate a mouse or joystick. That being said, putting the player in this sort of environment for any significant length of time is probably something best left undone.
Another purpose of this experiment was to take a look at the inherent isolation of VR platforms. We found that having windows to the outside world help counter this effect rather nicely. The play area in which the player could move was still constrained to the tracking limitations of the headset, but being able to see an environment outside of where you could wander in the real world did, to some degree, help distract the player from the fact that they are very much rooted in place while using VR.
Try it out!
RIT VR Design 